Shooting RAW with a700...worth it?

As a longtime RAW shooter, I really didn't expect myself to change my workflow that much. Reading about agorabasta'a a700 settings changed my mind a bit and I decided to give it a try. Before this, I have worked my way through RAWshooter, IDC, Silkypix, C1, ACR, Lightroom, RawTherapee, DxO...

So far with shooting JPG, I have been unexpectedly pleased...and it makes me wonder:

Is shooting RAW with the a700 worth the hassle? Does any of the RAW converters out there beat the a700's JPG engine?

My theory is that most of the RAW converters simply don't give attention enough to Sony RAW files (including Sony's own IDC!)...theoretically, the RAW file contains more data and SHOULD provide a basis for superior IQ...but what if our eyes see something else???

This is not a scientific test, but I can honestly not see that my shots are getting worse than before - and it saves space and time!

One of the good reasons for me to use the RAW workflow was that I could easily save bad exposures - and this was actually true when I still used my old KM7D. But as I've gotten used to handle my a700, exposure problems are getting rare these days...

See some samples in my next post (my wife was kind enough to act as test model )...hoping for some constructive comments.